An MIT study on “legalese” suggests this convoluted language acts to convey a sense of authority in legal documents. The researchers also found that even non-lawyers use legalese when asked to write laws.
  • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    12 days ago

    They want us to hire lawyers and to delay things as much as possible to keep the billable hours high.

    It’s more that the average person is an idiot and also knows exactly nothing about how court proceedings work. What paperwork to file, what deadlines they need to meet, what processes need to be followed.

    Someone representing themselves is the surefire way to turn a simple case into a clusterfuck when they do things wrong. Missing paperwork means you need to now reschedule hearings, which pushes other cases. Missing deadlines means you fuck yourself over nothing, and a judge doesn’t particularly want to do that, so now they have to move things around to try to help you out.

    Judges hate self-representation because every idiot thinks they can do it and fuck everything up.

    • dan1101@lemmy.worldEnglish
      42·
      12 days ago

      Maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle, because a person with clear evidence they did not do what they are accused of should not need a lawyer to be allowed to present that evidence in court to defend themselves.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        12 days ago

        There’s still a LOT of stuff that goes on in the background. If you’re talking about basic traffic court, you never need a lawyer for that.

        You generally do for criminal court, and there is nothing simple about criminal cases, even if you think they are on the surface. In fact, that’s kind of the point. You think you know more than you do, and you end up screwing up the process and causing more problems.